Editor's note: Hong Kong and Shenzhen have been alluded to as within a "one-hour living cycle" as far as budding entrepreneurs are concerned. Startup businesses are increasingly banking on the two cities' close bonds to get themselves off the ground and deliver their products.

As Hong Kong and Shenzhen move closer to building up their startup ecosystems, overseas entrepreneurs are drawing on the strengthening bonds between the two cities to leverage the resources of both sides.

Carlos Marco Rider is part of a crop of entrepreneurs shuttling between Hong Kong and Shenzhen each week to run their startups. The Spanish entrepreneur is the founder and chief executive officer of Kuaiwear, a Shenzhen-based company that's registered in Hong Kong.

Kuaiwear produces fitness-tracking headphones designed to coach users with voice feedback and training plans. Shenzhen, deemed as the paradise for hardware makers, is an obvious location choice for the company.

"For us, it's very important to be very close to our manufacturing partners. We're based 20 minutes away from the factory in the Bao'an district, and we have members of the team going to the factory three times a week," Rider tells China Daily.

And, Hong Kong is where Rider aims to raise funds for his company. "It's easier for us to do it in Hong Kong. One of the reasons is we get exposure in Hong Kong through an accelerator program we're in, and we get an introduction to investors in the city," he says.

The company is currently part of AIA Accelerator in Hong Kong - a program for wearable and health-tech startups backed by the insurance group.

Kuaiwear's ties with the SAR are likely to strengthen further as the company is set to move into its new office in a work hub in the Shekou Industrial Zone, run by Hong Kong-headquartered Tuspark Global Network (TGN).

TGN is a cross-border network that provides office space to startups. This is TGN's first work hub in Shenzhen - it's already operating four co-working spaces in Kwun Tong, Central, Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong.

The proximity and the respective strengths of the two cities offer grounds for closer cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, experts say.

"Shenzhen and Hong Kong are within the 'one-hour living circle'. They ought to be working together," Joanna Cheung, founder and managing director of TGN, said at the opening of the Shekou work hub last Friday.

"From the first day we started TGN in Hong Kong, we clearly understood Hong Kong's role as a 'super-connector'. After some foreign companies have settled down in Shenzhen, they also come to Hong Kong for the smaller culture gap there," she explained.

"Also, Hong Kong has always been a hotbed for funding. Therefore, even if some projects skipped Hong Kong when they started out, they would come back to Hong Kong to raise funds. This has been an obvious trend that we have observed in the past few years," Cheung added.

Hong Kong's forte in finance and Shenzhen's strength in manufacturing have made Hong Kong and Shenzhen a dynamic duo.

"When we tour around overseas to promote Hong Kong, we also promote Shenzhen at the same time. Hong Kong and Shenzhen are within a 'one-hour living circle', and startups can get their work done within this circle, from concept to manufacturing," Simon Tsang, head of innovation and technology at InvestHK - Hong Kong's investment promotion agency - said at the opening.

TGN's expansion into Shenzhen is not the startup world's first attempt to leverage the Hong Kong-Shenzhen synergy.

Brinc, for instance, is a Hong Kong-based accelerator that supports "Internet of things" startups with their manufacturing on the Chinese mainland, especially in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, to eventually deliver their products.

Shenzhen's Qianhai new district has also been actively luring Hong Kong entrepreneurs to join its Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub (E-Hub), with tax incentives and funding opportunities. By late last year, more than 50 Hong Kong startups had set up shop in the E-Hub.

Among the batch is IvySpace, an online English tutoring service featuring a group of Ivy League tutors. Founded by Yale graduates, the company currently resides in TGN Causeway Bay Work Hub in Hong Kong and is also accepted by Qianhai's E-hub as a thriving Hong Kong company.

While IvySpace chooses the SAR as its corporate headquarters for legal and investment reasons, its operations are largely in Shenzhen as the business focuses on the Chinese mainland market, according to Timothy Kau, co-founder of IvySpace.

"For us, Qianhai is our foot in the door into China, and it also helps us meet some of our investors," Kau says.

iris@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 03/10/2016 page9)